How does Ontario enforce its online gambling laws against unlicensed offshore sites that accept players from the province?

Picture an Ottawa resident loading up an offshore casino site — say, Bodog — that has no Ontario registration but actively runs ads on local media and accepts Ontario players without restriction. What, exactly, can the province actually do about that?

The honest answer is: quite a lot at the edges, and almost nothing at the core. Ontario cannot reach across borders and shut down a server in Malta or Curaçao. But the AGCO has built a multi-pronged enforcement strategy that squeezes offshore operators from several directions simultaneously.

The legal foundation

Under the Gaming Control Act, 1992, online gambling sites are required to register with the AGCO and sign an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario in order to operate in Ontario. That obligation applies regardless of where the operator is incorporated. An offshore site accepting Ontario players without that registration is operating illegally under provincial law — the catch is that Ontario's enforcement tools are mostly indirect, because the operator itself sits outside the province's physical jurisdiction.

How enforcement actually works in practice

Cutting off the supply chain. This is arguably the sharpest tool Ontario has. The AGCO prohibits companies operating in the regulated iGaming market from offering their products to unregulated gaming websites available to Ontario players, because supplying games to such sites helps sustain unregulated gaming operations. In a concrete recent example, the AGCO served Relax Gaming Limited and Arrise Solutions Limited with Orders of Monetary Penalties of $40,000 each, following an investigation that found games created by these companies were available on unregulated gambling websites accessible to Ontario players. The logic: even if you can't fine the offshore site itself, you can fine the registered game studios and payment processors that feed it — and those companies have Ontario registrations they want to keep.

Pressuring media and advertising platforms. The AGCO has contacted more than a dozen traditional and digital media platforms, calling on them to stop promoting unregulated online gambling and sports betting sites like Bodog to Ontario residents. Bodog is an offshore operator actively targeting Ontarians by advertising on popular traditional and digital media platforms, and despite blocking players in Quebec and Nova Scotia, it continues to allow Ontarians to access its sites. The AGCO's approach here is reputational and commercial pressure — platforms that carry that advertising risk being publicly named by the regulator.

Sending targeted letters to registered suppliers. The AGCO is executing several initiatives to address and minimize the unregulated market, including meeting with intermediaries in the digital services space, conducting channelization research, and sending targeted letters to registered Gaming-Related Suppliers — listing known unregulated sites in Ontario where their games are present and requesting confirmation that the games are blocked from play on those sites.

International collaboration. The AGCO is simultaneously collaborating with other jurisdictions, given the international regulatory community is increasingly prioritizing joint efforts to address illegal online gambling activity around the world. This matters because many offshore operators hold licences in places like Malta or Gibraltar, and pressure from those regulators can have real teeth.

What Ontario cannot do — and what that means for players

The AGCO has no legal relationship with unregulated iGaming operators — which means if you deposit money on an offshore site and something goes wrong, there is no regulator to complain to, no dispute resolution process, and no recourse. Unregulated gaming sites operate outside Ontario's framework, meaning players have no assurance of fair games, timely withdrawals, or access to meaningful dispute resolution. When regulated games appear on unregulated sites, it risks enabling a market that exposes players to real harm.

The practical upshot for anyone in Ottawa: Ontario's enforcement is getting more sophisticated, but it's still easier to avoid the problem than to fix it after the fact. By the end of fiscal year 2024–2025, the province had achieved a channelization rate of approximately 85%, indicating the legal market's ability to capture a significant share of players — which suggests the regulated market is genuinely competitive. You can verify which operators are fully registered by checking the official iGaming Ontario operator list; legitimate sites also display both the iGaming Ontario and BetGuard logos as a quick visual signal they're operating inside the regulated framework.

If gambling ever becomes a concern rather than entertainment, ConnexOntario is available at 1-866-531-2600. Ontario's legal gambling age is 19+.